Lentil Skillet
Description
It’s been a week of leftovers…Tuesday – leftovers, Wednesday – this lentil skillet with a simple green salad garnished with mandarin oranges, today – dinner out for Mom’s birthday, Friday – will be more leftovers. There will be some cooking going on this weekend though with a big family barbecue, and as I’m writing this, I’m realizing that one of the main reasons I decided to try this lentil recipe – borrowed from Cooking Light – was because of the bacon, and I totally forgot about the bacon! It’s simple, it’s tasty, the girls even ate a big bowlful no problem, and all without bacon…
Ingredients
Lentil Skillet
Bacon – cooked and crumbled for topping
1 small onion, finely chopped
6 cloves of garlic, minced
3 good-sized carrots AND 3 celery sticks, diced
1 t. fresh thyme, chopped
3–4 c. chicken broth
1 c. lentils (the recipe called for brown, I only had red)
parsley for garnish
freshly ground pepper to taste
Instructions
If your bacon isn’t already cooked, cook it until crisp in a large skillet and then remove it, crumble it, and set aside, saving a bit of the bacon grease for cooking with. If your bacon is ready, add a bit of oil to a large skillet and saute the onion, garlic, carrot and celery for 5 minutes or so until it’s all softened a bit.
Add the thyme, 3 cups of broth and the lentils and bring the mixture to a boil. Simmer for about 15 minutes until the lentils are done, but not mushy. You may or may not need a bit more broth but the lentils should look like lentils and be tender, and the liquid in the pan should be almost gone.
Remove from heat, add parsley and pepper to taste, serve it up and sprinkle each bowl with bacon!
- Category: Beans, Vegetarian, One-pot Meal
